Classic Homemade Chili Recipe

Welcome back to my channel, illicit folio, where we take simple ingredients and turn them into something special. Today, we are making one of my cozy favorite meals, homemade classic chili. Now this chili recipe was inspired by my mom growing up. She used to make this all the time and it just brings back these warm, cozy, comforting memories that I enjoyed when I was a kid. So let's head over to my kitchen and start by chopping up our bacon and some sweet onions. I like to chop my ingredients first so once I start cooking, I can just move really, really quickly. So once you have your bacon and your onions chopped and all of your ingredients gathered, we're going to start cooking our chili recipe by building a rich, savory base and take that sliced bacon and add it to our pot. You're going to cook this bacon until it's crispy and then once your bacon is crispy, simply just remove it from the pot but allow that grease from the and the fat that's rendered to just stay in the pot. Now, when you take out the bacon, just allow it to sit in a bowl with a paper towel so some of the grease can drain off and we're going to be left with these awesome drippings and that's how we're going to build flavor in this chili. After the bacon is removed, we're going to add our chopped onions and allow the sweet onions to saute until they're soft and fragrant and then we're going to add in our ground beef. After we've browned the ground beef for just a little bit, we can start seasoning our beef by taking some garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, and one of my secret ingredients, adobo seasoning. It's the perfect seasoning to me because it adds this nice savory balance and it really takes the flavor up a notch. After that, we're going to finish off with some thyme and then give our chili base a really good stir and allow the meat to cook all the way through until it's a nice brown color. Now, at this step, you may notice that you have an excess of grease in your pot. You can drain the excess grease off and return the ground beef to your pot but the amount of grease that you have will really depend on the amount of fat that was in the ground beef that you purchased. In this video, I'm using a 90-10 ground beef. I decided to go with less fat in my beef because I knew I was going to be using bacon to start off with and I wanted the bacon fat for the natural flavors instead of the ground beef fat. So, if you have the extra grease, drain it off just a at the end of this recipe. Now that our ground beef has cooked all the way through, you can add in some crushed red pepper. If you like a little bit of heat in your chili, don't be shy. Just add a little bit but this seasoning right here is totally optional. Now, let's start with the tomatoes. For the tomatoes, we're going to add first a little bit of tomato paste. Not only will this sort of thicken the base of our chili but the tomato paste is really, really concentrated so it adds a nice rich depth of flavor that we'll need to build our chili. Then, I'm going to go in with some diced tomatoes. I personally like using the Rotel diced tomatoes that has the jalapenos or the habanero peppers in it because to me, it adds a nice little kick at the end of the chili but if you prefer a milder flavor, you can totally just go with some regular diced tomatoes and it will still turn out just as good. This recipe is really, really flexible and it's even more delicious now that I think about it. If you're not a ground beef eater, you can also use turkey in this recipe and it will still turn out really, really good. I've done it both ways depending on what I had in my freezer at the time. Lastly, we're going to add in our tomato sauce and once our sauce is added in the stew, it will give it the texture that we love and it will also add brightness to our recipe. After we add the tomato sauce, we're going to go in with our chili beans. Now, I drain my chili bean juice. I know this is really debatable online and I know some people just throw the entire can in because they want the extra liquid but the reason why I decide to drain mine a bit is because that sometimes the brine solution that these beans are sitting in can be heavily concentrated in sodium to preserve the beans and I would rather control the amount of salt that I have in my own recipe by going through taste. So, I drain off any of the extra preservatives in my chili but it's really up to you. I drain mine. Now, once your beans are mixed into your stew, we're going to give that a nice good stir and your kitchen should be smelling amazing at this point. To finish off our chili base, we're going to add some chicken broth instead of water because we love the extra flavor, some Worcestershire sauce to add in some savory flavors and a tad bit more of salt and pepper to taste. You know, give your chili a taste and see if you need to add some at this step and then for another secret ingredient, I like to add hickory smoke. You just need a little bit. This stuff is really, really powerful but it really gives your chili that taste like it's been cooking over a wood fire grill all day long. So, add a little bit of hickory smoke at this step. Drop in a bay leaf and add in that chopped bacon. I'm going to set some to the side because I want to garnish mine later. Add your lid to the pot and then allow the chili to simmer for about 30 to 45 minutes on low to medium heat and this will allow all the flavors to melt together. After you've allowed your chili to simmer, grab your favorite bowl and ladle in some of that cozy chili goodness that you just worked so hard for and made. I love this recipe because it's an easy one-pot recipe and tonight we're going to enjoy our chili with some homemade cornbread that I made earlier today. Now, you can top this chili off with some fun garnishes. Some favorites are mine are cheese, a little bit of sour cream, some green onions, and of course that leftover bacon. This is definitely the perfect meal if you're craving a nice cozy dinner and you want something easy to enjoy that night and to me, this chili will taste even better the next day. If you want the full ingredient list and step-by-step instructions, the complete recipe can be found over at my blog alissafolio.com. I'll link everything below for you. Thank you guys so much for watching. I can't wait for you to give me your feedback and don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe and I can't wait to see you next time!